The 4.0 picture continues to clear up. Lakeside continues to delay posting their scores, but I have little doubt that they've won. Division I will come down to the finale between Lakeside and Sienna. Can Sienna's Troy Gor and Donnie Rochelle at least split the singles with Wooten and Larrazolo? I can't see them splitting singles AND taking two doubles lines, especially with the DQ of Pfeiffer. Advantage Lakeside.
The Hurricanes waltzed past another overmatched opponent last night, blanking SAP, all in straight sets. Chancellor's squeaked past the Phoenix and play the Hurricanes at 12:30 on Saturday. Louis Lu wisely worked his roster in the offseason again this year, but lost Timothy Nguyen during the HTA season and Thai Chung this summer. Not having those two may make the difference in the match with the 'Canes. I'm curious to see how Cuong Truong (and Danh Mai) fares against whichever stud the 'Canes use in singles.
4.0 is definitely the warmup act to the exciting 4.5 playoffs this weekend. There are 9 matches scheduled this weekend, and right now every one of them has the potential to be meaningful. A loss by the D-bags to the Black Sheep on Saturday will render their final two matches meaningless. It will be interesting to see the lineups that they trot out there if that should happen. Every line could be meaningful for some teams with the logjam in the standings.
Nobody's talking about Ken Douds' team, but they've got two solid singles guys in Jim and Ford (they've won 3 of 4 so far) and an unspectacular but capable group of doubles players. The loss of John Burrmann has hurt but not crippled this team. They start out the weekend with Lakeside. Lakeside has shown some weakness with their doubles depth without Connell and Wright, dropping line 3 in both playoff matches. Ed Hess has been as impressive as anyone (other than perhaps Davila) thus far. I've heard that (official? unofficial?) protests of Hess' 4.5 status have proven fruitless. Have Vu and Zachary become the top doubles tandem in the city?
The other Saturday battle is between the two Hurricane teams. While I talk to Freeman quite frequently, I have no idea what's going on in his head on this one. It would be a difficult position for any captain to be in. Ideally I'm sure he'd love to see both teams qualify for Sectionals. I'm sure he'd also love to get some players into the lineup while also sending a message to each team that he is putting his all into getting them to Dallas and not favoring either team.
I won't go through every matchup on Sunday...it's impossible to say at this point which ones will be crucial...too many permutations. Suffice it to say, however, that Sunday afternoon may make for the most exciting city playoff finishes in recent memory.
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Can a team or a captain be disqualified for changing scores when they report them on Tennis Link?
ReplyDeleteThe captains in 4.0 do this because nobody cares about 4.0 so they don't notice.
ReplyDeleteI would laugh my ass off if Freeman and Sporr get kicked out of the playoffs for that.
ReplyDeleteThat's OK we don't care about 4.5 either so I guess that makes us even.
ReplyDeleteDetails please!!!!
ReplyDeleteHave you heard the term 'too big to fail' that is just what folks like Red/Freeman/Spoor are.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that these guys would do something stupid like that and if they did HTA would have challenging time proving it was a collaborative effort to fix scores or whatever the accusations are....
The HTA has a difficult time with their own web site let alone policing their "members" and reported scores.
ReplyDeleteWow, the Waco 4.5 league is a complete joke. They have 1 4.5 team and 2 teams made up of 4.0s. The 4.0 trams only play the 4.5 team and not each other. Also, several lines are purely defaults. Dallas gets in as many teams as Waco, what bs. The local league coordinator needs to step in and deal with this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe USTA Texas office needs to do something about the scam leagues. In the alternative, they should let second place teams from the big cities go to the QT.
ReplyDeleteThere were no entries to the QT this year.
ReplyDeleteWhats sad is this....Waco's league is still cleaner then ours and Dallas
ReplyDelete1:50 - Only entry to QT in 4.0 was Laredo, and none in 4.5.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how the Hurricane's 4.0 singles players can't win a match to save their life in the spring season and can win all their matches when it counts. I guess I didn't get the memo that the winners of city get a paycheck. Look up their records and see what a joke it is. I saw them both play today and they are good....too good to get their asses kicked by a bunch of 3.5's in HTA season.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused? I just looked up Hurricanes 4.0 matches and they were dominant in singles in the Spring. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteSour grapes.
ReplyDeleteTake a look at Ellingson and Knuston before the USTA season and then during. Joke. No sour grapes. I had a good season.
ReplyDeleteWhat the helk? They've been winning all season long !!
ReplyDeleteRumour has it that Westheimer Indoor beat Lakeside yesterday 3-2. Can anyone confirm that?
ReplyDeleteLakeside sucks. They won't win another match.
ReplyDeleteConfirmed. Ford beat Hess in straight sets, as did Day/Jim over Zachary/Vu.
ReplyDeleteHurricanes have just been so freakin lucky and got the right match-ups. Lakeside is better than both Hurricanes. They will rebound and take down both Hurricanes Teams today and get back in the mix. Not sure what happened, but Westheimer Indoor got lucky!! Davila and Alzate will be too consistent for Ford and Jim. Nice run West. Indoors, but hey, hey goodbye.
ReplyDeleteLakeside is 1-2 and are out of it. Bring on the scrubs. Westheimer and Canes III have the inside track for Sectionals. Will know more once yesterday's scores are posted and the after the results from the 12:30 matches.
ReplyDeleteWow you all thought there was a conflict of interest when Jason was captaining 2 teams at playoffs. How about 3 teams at Nationals!
ReplyDeleteHey where are the props now for Capt Douds? Pulled out the 3rd set TB to pull off the upset against LS
ReplyDeleteMicheal Tran: Why the bullshit move of retiring down 5-2 in the second?
ReplyDeleteLakeside 4.0 beat Sienna 3-2 to advance to final this evening (weather permitting) vs. Hurricanes.
ReplyDeleteDavila lost Today. How good he is? I told everyone wait until the Playoff.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Ford and Douds are the heroes of Westhimer Indoor this weekend. Maybe NoHo made a mistake not getting Ford for their team post season
ReplyDeleteSweet justice, Huffman and Ballesteros beat Canes 3 today.
ReplyDeleteWhy is that justice?
ReplyDeleteGreg Shmucker is exhibit A for how weak tournaments are compared to league.
ReplyDeleteWhen is Dallas?
ReplyDeleteLakeside beat both Canes teams today!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Capt. Douds and Westheimer Indoor -- they won citywides today.
ReplyDeletedon't recall seeing anyone predict that outcome!
ReplyDeleteJHC, leave Schmucker alone. He isn't playing as well as he used to so what. He has played on a team that quailified for nationals, have you?
ReplyDeleteLooking at the top tournament players from Houston, David Guy and Emmett McCool, you don't think they can compete in league?
Westheimer Indoors got it done on the court this weekend. They will represent Houston well at Sectionals. All the negative comments really got old. I'm sure it motivated them in the end.
ReplyDeleteGood job Mr Douds.
Hey, where are the haters now? Douds carried Marco and the Titans to victory.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Captain Douds and Westheimer Indoors. Their scrubs outplayed everyone's scrubs the whole weekend. Lakeside is by far the biggest disappointment of the weekend.
ReplyDeleteAll the Ward J. haters can STFU now with him going an impressive 2-0 today with a huge unexpected win today over Sarosh.
Did the two 4.5 Hurricane teams spread themselves out too thin?? Besides having a true A team and a true B team, now both teams are going fishing instead.
ReplyDelete- too bad there are some great guys on the duecebags that are playing for that classless alain and those cocky dugas brothers.
ReplyDelete- sarosh had some good wins and it seems like he is finally breaking through 4.5, but he's overrated and ward is underrated. great win for ward!
- strange douds played griffin against bui. good move on douds part, cuz bui would be too much for jim and jim was too much for vu and zachery. titans won
- where was sarosh against lakeside? he would have lost, but your team needs you.
- nice to see all the captains sacrificing their time and determination to get pass city. kudos to freeman for still being involved in houston tennis
Cocky Dugas brothers? They are among the nicest guys in Houston tennis? Did they beat you?
ReplyDeletewhy all the hate on schmucker? who cares if he's a tournament player. he's still a tennis player and comes out to compete. why all the hate on ward? he's fifty something and still able to compete against the young bucks. biggest win of the weekend is ward over ahmed
ReplyDeleteThere was a nice 4.5 doubles match being played at line 1 in the 4.0 final. All 4 playing were better than 70% of the 4.5s playing this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe HTA did a great job this weekend with all the rain. Overall, great playoffs and good sportsmanship (from what I saw).
Its time to stop the internal Houston fighting, congratulate the winning teams and support them as they represent our awesome city at sectionals.
5.0 - Oldschool (Bobo)
4.5 - Titans (Douds)
4.0 - Hurricanes (Freeman)
3.5 - Hurricanes (Freeman)
Good luck!!!!!!
Have to give Ward J. credit for a great win.
ReplyDeleteI really think douds had the best "TEAM" this summer considering he just worked with what he had, no recruiting involved and pulled it off. like somebody said just a group of scrubs.
ReplyDeleteAll the indoor matches this weekend favored westheimer indoors and westside. They better get ready for that Dallas heat though. It's gonna be toasty in big D.
ReplyDeleteLots of players missing this weekend that could have made the difference in some matches.
ReplyDeleteDeucebags- no borkop and tran only played 1 match. Could have made the difference.
Lakeside- no connell/wright really hurt them.
Hurricanes 2- no guy or mccool gave them slim chance.
Your right about that ignorant comment, did not help Westside against Westheimer Indoors. They do play outdoor tennis 99.9 percent of their workout outdoors
ReplyDeletewhy so many excuses, it's team tennis, 1 person or two can't make the difference, everyone has to pitch in
ReplyDeleteresults aren't updated. who got the WC
ReplyDelete1 or 2 people make the difference in any team sport. No lebron and Miami is just Miami . wasn't trying to make excuses, was just stating that a lot of key players weren't around.
ReplyDeleteWestside Black sheep got wild card.
Lol ... u guys are funny!!! ... to my partner Tim (thanks for carrying ME) , Antoine (who went 5-0), Simon, John D., and the rest of the guys ... I am proud to be part of the team!!!!!! We will try and represent Houston well ... Ken Douds
ReplyDeleteH town was right on with his prediction. Sunday afternoon will prove to be one of the most memorable finishes we've had in a long time. Came down to the wire...
ReplyDeleteHurricanes III are in!
ReplyDeleteIf these 2 r top tournament players. What does that make JIM and FORD? who took'em out rather easy.
ReplyDeleteIt makes them 5.0 players.
ReplyDelete6-4,6-4 and third set tiebreaker is not "rather easy"
ReplyDelete